First thought: quirk of geography, an odd football tale from the time-warp Naugatuck Valley League. But the 2007 Ansonia Chargers were legitimate - finishing No. 1 among all state schools, some four times larger - and Alex Thomas is no Friday Night fluke.

Thomas, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound tailback, led the nation in rushing, breaking every significant Connecticut record and proving more durable than a slender slab of Naugatuck Valley rock.

In the Class S final - a 35-0 rout of New London - Thomas carried the ball on 54 of Ansonia's 63 plays. Against a big and fast defense, Thomas ran for 249 yards and three touchdowns.

Without a fist pump or a sneer, Thomas - who turned away recruiters to focus on one school, Yale - made a personal workout room out of the West Haven High football field, a hard patch of frozen artificial turf alongside wind-swept Long Island Sound. In the fourth quarter, Thomas was just warming up.

"On his 50th run of the game, he's carrying tacklers on his back," Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said. "You can't do that without inner fire. Alex is better then people think. Alex is going to tear up that Ivy League."

Thomas has gone somewhat overlooked in his career, as if an Ansonia kid of his size playing in Class S couldn't really be that good. Thomas was among 200-plus seniors nominated nationally for the Army All-American Bowl on Jan. 5 in San Antonio.

When the final cut of 84 was made, Thomas was out. Lineman Mike Golic Jr. of Northwest Catholic, among others, was in. In Ansonia's 25-7 win over Northwest in the Class S semifinal, Thomas ran past the Notre Dame-bound Golic on the first play from scrimmage for an 87-yard touchdown.

Thomas, who shrugs as much as he talks, doesn't begrudge Golic or anyone else. Ask him if he could play Big East football and he says, "Coach thinks I could; I guess so."

Ask Thomas about his pinball numbers against Woodland-Beacon Falls or in any of the games that made up his 3,596-yard, 47-touchdown season (both state records) and you get the same response.

"I guess so, something like that," he says.

Thomas also set the state career record for yards (8,279) and touchdowns (114).

When Thomas showed up for football practice in 2004, he didn't start on offense on the freshman team. The Ansonia coaches figured he'd be a future fullback because his brother, Ryan, who graduated in 2003, was an All-State fullback.

Handed the ball as a sophomore, Thomas surprised everyone but himself in becoming a first-team All-State tailback.

"I always expect greatness out of myself, so I wasn't surprised," he said. "I knew I was playing the wrong position [as a freshman]. It made me work harder to show coaches who I was. I don't think I ever spoke up about it."

Before his sophomore season, Thomas committed himself to weight training that would result in his bench-pressing 335 pounds and squatting 470 as a senior.

"Very few sophomores can carry the load physically," Brockett said. "Ten carries turned into 15 and then by the end of the year it was 25, 30 carries a game."

Taking over as head coach in 2005, Brockett built Ansonia's I-formation offense around Thomas and won back-to-back Class S championships.

"His balance separates him," Brockett said. "He doesn't go down on the first hit. He's so hard to tackle. He's got great vision. He's patient. He stays in there.

"It's been a joy to be around him every day. Most kids have ups and downs. There's never been a down part with Alex. He never a missed day, never showed any disrespect to an opponent, an opposing coach, a fan, anything. Alex just takes care of what Alex has to do every day. The consistency for a high school kid is unbelievable."

When Yale began to interest Thomas, he hit the books harder and took courses to get his SAT up to the Ivy League range.

"He could have settled for B's, but when he knew Yale was an option, he worked for A's," said Laura Thomas, his mother. "He needed to get A's in advanced courses. It wasn't easy."

Laura Thomas, a single mother, raised Alex and five other children and works with special-needs adults at a local nonprofit. She said the publicity of Alex's senior year has forced her son out of his shell, but hasn't changed him.

"It's amazing he's gotten where he is being as quiet as he is," she said. "He's had to learn how to speak in front of people - to get out of his comfort zone. But he's always had a good moral compass and has been quite aware of who he is and what he needs to do. I can't say I pushed him, just encouraged him. I never had to push him to do his homework or anything."

Thomas wants to pursue a career in business when the cheering stops. He credits his faith - he plays guitar in the Seymour Evangelical Baptist Church praise band - his mother, coaches and teammates with his success. He said he's a different person on the field from the one people meet outside the sidelines.

"The adrenaline gets going," Thomas said. "I have a great team surrounding me and coaches who know what they're doing when they call plays. Everything just worked out."